|
No man's imagination, with all the aids of description that can be given to it, can ever picture the beauty and wildness of scenes that may be witnessed in this romantic country... George Caitlin, North American Indians |
|
|
|
INDIAN COUNTRY |
|
Apart from the occasional ranch and snow fence large areas of the high plains today are exactly as the early pioneers would have found them. The first feature that the modern day traveller discovers is the scale of the country. Everything about this landscape is big. The endless seas of grass rolling into the distance are punctuated by wooded river valleys and rocky hills. Each rocky outcrop rises from the surrounding plain in magnificent splendour. It is easy to understand how the Native Americans treated the high places as holy sites for meditation and vision quests. The hills, mountains and canyons were also used as the main points of reference when moving around the country. As the westward movement gathered pace many of these rocks such as Register cliff, Scotts Bluff and Independence Rock were used as camping places on the Oregon trail. The inscriptions of the early pioneers are clearly visible at many such locations. |
|
Of course the scenery in the Tetons, Yellowstone and the Badlands is world famous. Silver singing rivers, plunging waterfalls, sprouting geysers and deep canyons take the breath away. When the first mountain men described what they had seen they were thought to have been mad. No such place could exist on earth and even today words cannot do it justice .The climate of the plains varies from north to south, but generally winters are cold with sizeable snowfalls and summers are warm and can be very hot. Spring and Fall are short seasons compared with more temperate locations. Nights tend to be cold even in summer but there is no place on this earth where the stars and the moon seem to shine so bright. The dawn light with the stars still in the sky is special while some of the sunsets are indescribable.
|
|
Sadly the buffalo have gone from most of the plains but they are gradually being reintroduced by various environmental groups and indeed are being ranched in some areas. However many other species of wildlife still remain in substantial numbers. Wild horses are present in many areas and. vast herds of pronghorn antelope, over 750,000 of them, still roam the prairies. They can be seen grazing on the roadside ranges like herds of cattle .White tail deer and mule deer are found all over, while moose and elk are common in the foothills and mountain meadows. Grizzlies and black bear are found in the national parks and even the wolf has recently been successfully re established in Yellowstone. Mountain lions are all over, although difficult to see and coyotes are common in lots of places. Other smaller mammals that can be spotted are porcupine, red fox, beaver and bobcat. |
